Too much red!!!

[RedCoat999]

My output from my PVR250 on my TV has way too much red. I tried messing around with the settings throught the WIN2000 application, but cannot find a good compromise. Does anyone have some setting for brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, etc that I should use or recommendations for which to move and which not to change?
Thanks

[salsbst]

I don't have settings that I can recommend, but if you have a DVD-ROM in your HTPC, and you have an external DVD player that you can play into your 250, then I would think that the theoretically correct way to calibrate is to:

1) calibrate your TV by playing AVIA DVD through an external DVD player
2) calibrate your cable box (if present and configurable) by routing its output directly to the TV during a "color bars" broadcast from a reliable TV station
3) calibrate your video card by using a DVD like AVIA Home Theater Essentials played back through a software DVD player to the TV, and then
4) calibrate your 250 by using the AVIA Home Theater Essentials played from an external player into the 250.

Step (4) can be a problem because of the natural delay imposed by a PVR and, much worse, because it takes several clicks to go back and forth from the 250 settings to the video.

Step (2) is tough because different channels have different color levels and you have to find a time when an "average" channel broadcasts the color bars and perform this step live.

AVIA has a step that helps correct for what is known as "red push" which is the overemphasis of red. Basically, too much red is more annoying to our eyes than equal variances in levels of green and blue, so you sacrifice some of the perfection of your greens and blues in order to pull back on the red.

[RedCoat999]

Thanks for you detailed instructions.
Thanks

[fasttech]

Hey redcoat999,
Did you ever get it looking good? I have the same problem with my PVR 250. I used to use the PowerDVD 4 codec. I am now trying the PowerDVD 5 codec but the display is way too Red and dark. I don't know why the codec would matter on this but that is the only thing I changed. Do I need to change the settings for the PVR250? Do you have any recommendations for this?

Thanks,

[RedCoat999]

Not really, fiddled around with the Win2000 program color. Got it so that the red is not too bad. Waiting for "Studio" where color is supposedly one of the things you can change on the fly

[salsbst]

fasttech, perhaps your change of codec brought about a change in whether you are using VMR9 or overlay? I believe overlay colors have separate controls for Radeon cards.